Saga of the banded hummingbird

Faulkner

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As I walked in the door from work one day earlier this week I hung my duty belt on the peg in the mud room and slide my Glock 23 into the lock box on the high shelf, Mrs. Faulkner greets me and said, "guess what I saw today?"

"What did you see," I answered.

"A banded ruby-throated hummingbird."

"A banded hummingbird?" I replied. "I've never heard of such. You mean like a band around it's leg like a banded mallard?"

She smiled, "exactly like that. I was taking pictures of my hummingbirds this morning and I noticed something shiny on the leg of one of them. When I downloaded the pictures I could see the band plain as day, but I couldn't see if had anything on it because it was too small. So, I got on line to look it up and found out that one of the few places that band hummingbirds in North America is in Arkansas."

"Where is that?" I asked.

"They do it at Potlatch Conservation Education Center at Cook's Lake," she answered.

"Where is that?" I repeated

She looked at some notes she had taken and said, "It said on the web page it was near Casscoe, Arkansas."

"Where is that?" I've lived in Arkansas my whole life and I've never heard of Casscoe.

"I think it's east of Stuttgart."

I was sitting in a chair at the kitchen table and had my uniform shirt off and had shucked my ballistic vest. Mrs. Faulkner handed me a glass of iced tea.

"Stuttgart? That's in southeast Arkansas, down in the Grand Prairie where all that rice farming goes on. There's a bunch of minnow farms down there too, several of my buddies used to go frog gigging at night around those minnow ponds back in high school. Man, we used to see some monster water moccasins around those minnow ponds at night."

She scrunched up her nose as I mentioned the water moccasins and said, "I don't know about the snakes, but I called the number I found on the web page for the Education Center at Cook's Lake and actually talked to the lady that does the hummingbird banding. They usually only do public banding of the birds on Saturday, but she said if we could come down tomorrow she would do a demonstration for us. We can take our camera gear and get some pictures too, they have a lot of hummingbirds.

I pulled out my iPhone and went to Google Maps and searched for Casscoe, Arkansas.

"Wow," I said. "That's clear across the state. Looks like about a 3 hour drive."

"Can we leave early so we can get there by 9:00 am. Oh, she said we'd need some bug spray because the mosquitoes are thick there." I guess were going to Casscoe.

So, we left out before 6:00 the next morning for a early morning drive across the state. At least we got ahead of the traffic as we went through Little Rock. When we pulled into Casscoe there was no wonder I had never heard of it, it was little more than a highway intersection and a church with a few farm places scattered about. We turned off the main highway onto a chip seal road and followed the signs pointing to the education center. After a mile or so the hard road gave way to gravel and we traveled it another couple of miles to the center that was nestled in the middle of some big timber.

The nice folks at the education center greeted us as we parked and got out of the vehicle. This place is way out in the boonies so I doubt they get very many unexpected visitors. After introductions they gave us a brief tour of the facilities and then lead us to the area behind the building where they have half a dozen hummingbird feeders that were swarming with hummingbirds. As we unpacked our camera gear they explained how they go about capturing and banding the hummingbirds. It's a very interesting process and they said they band about 3,000 hummingbirds a year.

We set up our camera gear and took pictures of the dozens and dozens of hummingbirds for about 45 minutes. They are fast little boogers and you have to be quick to capture them with the camera. I think Mrs. Faulkner could have stayed all day just to take pictures, but the time came for them to demonstrate the banding process. They set up a large live trap, just like what I use to live trap raccoons at home, but this one had been modified with openings on the side and a hinged trap door on the top. They hung a feeder inside the live trap and then took all of the other feeders inside out of reach of the hummingbirds.

With the other feeders gone it didn't take long for them to home in on the feeder inside the trap. They flew in the side openings to feed, but with the trap door closed on top they couldn't get back out. Once there were a dozen or so inside the trap the biologist walked up with a small nylon sack and reached in and snagged one of the birds. Once she had it in hand, she opened the trap door on top and all the other birds flew out. They immediately brought out the other feeders and hung them back out and brought the trap inside.

She held the bird gently in her hand with it's beak protruding through the nylon bag as we headed to the banding work table. The nylon bag kept it from moving around and hurting itself. The band is a tiny little thing and I pulled out a penny and took the picture below to show it's comparable size. The biologist has a modified pair of needle nose pliers that hold the band so that they can slip it over the leg and then squeeze it shut without hurting the hummingbird's leg. Once the band the log the number on the band and measure the wing length, the length of the beak, weight it, and log it's gender.

Once they were finished with the banding process and logging all of the information, the biologist handed the hummingbird to Mrs. Faulkner and let her hold it. She was excited and could actually feel the heartbeat of the little fellow. With bird in hand we walked back outside so that she could release the bird. Mrs. Faulkner opened her hand and peeled open the nylon bag and the bird poked it's head out, looked around a bit, then took off. It was all very exciting.

The folks at the Potlatch Conservation Education Center at Cook's Lake were extremely gracious during our visit and we had a great time and we learned a great deal about hummingbirds that we didn't know and it was well worth the 6 hour round trip drive.


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Great story! Glad you shared the event here! My wife sets out feeders every year (well, she makes the nectar and fills the feeders). We both enjoy watching the tiny birds swarming and buzzing around. Not much at photography, but I am always amazed by how tiny, and how darn fast they are.

Hard to imagine those tiny birds migrating to Mexico and back every year.......... or is that just folklore?

You gotta be our most "hummingbird educated" expert after that trip. Really enjoyed the pictures too.
 
Interesting. I wonder what they are studying about the birds. I can't imagine they get too many of the bands back. Just to spot one would be difficult and I don't imagine the bands have contact info on them unless it's really tiny.

She said they study migration habits, and surprisingly, they do get contacted about the bands. The bands have a number on them and they have been contacted by people all across the Texas gulf coast. She seemed excited to hear our of our sighting up in the Ozarks.



Great story! Glad you shared the event here! My wife sets out feeders every year (well, she makes the nectar and fills the feeders). We both enjoy watching the tiny birds swarming and buzzing around. Not much at photography, but I am always amazed by how tiny, and how darn fast they are.

Hard to imagine those tiny birds migrating to Mexico and back every year.......... or is that just folklore?

You gotta be our most "hummingbird educated" expert after that trip. Really enjoyed the pictures too.

Not folklore, she said many do winter along the Texas gulf coast but most make the trip to Mexico.



Great story and great photos. I have a friend who's a wildlife biologist, we were camping in Belize when he called me over, parted some branches on a bush and showed me a hummingbird nest with eggs in it. To my mind, everything about hummingbirds is amazing.
Regards,

One thing we learned is that hummingbirds have no chest feathers. This is because when the females sit on the nest to incubate the eggs, and later to keep the young ones warm, it helps keep them warm with direct contact with their breast. While explaining this to us, the biologist took a soda straw and very gently blew on the chest of the hummingbird we were banding and showed us the exposed breast.


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Very interesting. I wonder what the bird thinks about the new jewelry.

We put feeders out every year, but seen to have fewer hummers this year. Sometimes I will sit on the deck railing holding a feeder, with my finger near the feeder as if a perch. Occasionally a hummer will fly up and land on my finger to have a drink. But you have to be very still.
 
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Great story, and very informative. I'll have to find the photos I've taken of them. I found the best way for me was to use the tripod and shutter remote, them pre focus on the feeder. When the hummers arrive just start snapping photos, and then sort out the good ones.

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
We have hummingbird feeders out at our place and we're not too far across the Mississippi River, as the crow flies, from the education center Faulkner visited. I told my family about his post and to keep an eye out for any banded hummingbirds.

After Mrs. Faulkner put the word out locally through social media she has received several reports of sightings of banded hummingbirds now that folks know to keep an eye out for them. One of her cousins in central Missouri sent her a picture she took of a banded hummingbird at one of her feeders.
 
Thanks for the interesting information. "My" hummers, green backs and rufus, arrive in the late spring and zoom around the spot where I hang the feeder. That's how I know it is time to put it out. I think these migrate to Mexico or points south. They are hungry little critters!

A few days ago one crashed into the window and did a faceplant on the deck. I thought it had a broken neck, for sure. I picked it up and held it for awhile, then placed it in a safe spot where it remained deceased looking. After about an hour it was sitting up blinking, going *** happened? A little bit later it buzzed off when I walked by. Yay!
 
Thanks for the interesting information. "My" hummers, green backs and rufus, arrive in the late spring and zoom around the spot where I hang the feeder. That's how I know it is time to put it out. I think these migrate to Mexico or points south. They are hungry little critters!

A few days ago one crashed into the window and did a faceplant on the deck. I thought it had a broken neck, for sure. I picked it up and held it for awhile, then placed it in a safe spot where it remained deceased looking. After about an hour it was sitting up blinking, going *** happened? A little bit later it buzzed off when I walked by. Yay!


One crashed into our patio door and,for all intents and purposes, appeared
to be dead. I picked it up and within seconds it had revived and flew off.
 
We now live at an assisted living so no humming feeders. Before our move we fed them every year. They are so much fun to observe. Miss them a lot! They show up in early May in Maine and leave mid to late Sept. There are Internet sites with dates and pattern of their yearly flights. Amazing small God's creatures.
 
We now live at an assisted living so no humming feeders. Before our move we fed them every year. They are so much fun to observe. Miss them a lot! They show up in early May in Maine and leave mid to late Sept. There are Internet sites with dates and pattern of their yearly flights. Amazing small God's creatures.

Have you asked if they would put up some feeders? They may do it and let you keep the feeders full.
Larry
 
As a teenager I found that if I sat very still beneath a feeder the hummingbirds would ignore me. I actually had them hover inches in front of my face for several seconds at a time. Every time I moved to try to take a photo, though, they would zoom away.

I haven't tried that since, but it was quite entertaining.
 
Good news, just saw one at my feeder! Thought they had moved on. They perch and drink and drink. I use the 1 cup sugar to 1 cup water solution. Have heard never use the colored stuff sold in stores, dye is bad for them.

The recommended solution is 1 cup sugar to 4 cups of water. If you mix it with too much sugar they'll still drink it but the solution can be potentially too sticky and damage their ability to fly should it get on their feathers.

I have also "heard" that the store bought red nectar is not good for them. It is believed that overconsumption of red dye in hummingbirds could have potentially disastrous effects, including increased tumors and cancer of the birds' bills and livers. Regardless, the red dye is unnecessary and making home made hummingbird food is simple enough to make and cheaper than store bought red stuff.


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The recommended solution is 1 cup sugar to 4 cups of water. If you mix it with too much sugar they'll still drink it but the solution can be potentially too sticky and damage their ability to fly should it get on their feathers.

I have also "heard" that the store bought red nectar is not good for them. It is believed that overconsumption of red dye in hummingbirds could have potentially disastrous effects, including increased tumors and cancer of the birds' bills and livers. Regardless, the red dye is unnecessary and making home made hummingbird food is simple enough to make and cheaper than store bought red stuff.


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So in other words 4:1
 
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